Flickers Of Confusion
by xXBalorBabeXx
Summary: Amanda was comatose for five days... or was it really longer? She has no idea what to make of the time she initially wakes up in, nor of the man visiting it. And would anyone believe either of them? (Co-written with Cry-Of-A-Warp-Engine)
1. Time Slipped Away

Hazel eyes slowly opened, Amanda half thinking she would've been in her black, white and red ring outfit instead of a hospital gown. She looked to her side and tried to talk, Finn lightly brushing her hair back.

"Slowly squeeze my hand, okay?" Finn asked quietly, Amanda doing so… but he noticed that she was looking around for someone. "Hey, it's alright… you've been unconscious for a while." He said.

"How long?" Amanda asked as she felt the bandages around her forehead, the last thing she remembered was a chair hitting her and someone yelling "Disqualify that!".

"About 5 days… you don't remember the match with Alexa, do you? With me and Murphy banned from ringside?" Finn responded.

"The chair shot… if I had brought the chair in, I would've hit it against the mat and then pretended to be hurt. Eddie used to do that throughout his career and the last time, it was to Ken Kennedy… Alexa cracked it over my head?!" Amanda replied.

"Yeah… she shoved it at you first to make you shield yourself, then used that second to hit you with it for real… deliberately angled so the leg hit first." Finn responded.

"That… of all the fucking things that spiteful bitch has done, this broke the damn limit!" Amanda said, trying to get out of the bed but Finn stopped her. "When I rewatch that video from 2005 when Eddie pulled that trick on Kennedy, there's a reason I never smile… it was his last match, he was in no condition to compete at the live events after the taping so they wanted him to rest up for Survivor Series. I always thought that when he was out cold… the lack of oxygen led to the resulting heart attack that killed him. After… I thought that Ken had gotten away with murder basically." She said as Finn rubbed his left hand up and down her right side… but he could tell she was holding something back.

"Hey… something's on your mind. Something more than that, I can see it." Finn said, his hand going still but remaining on her side. "Did you… see something?"

"I thought at one point that I had woke up over 100 years in the future… someone scanning me with some kind of technology. I went along with it to try to get back but… then it all just blurred away. You probably think I've gone crazy or that I'm still confused…" Amanda said before they looked right at each other and Finn's hands lightly cradled Amanda's face.

"No, I don't… because even if I didn't believe that you were telling me the truth, when you came in… it was around a half hour after the match called off. But every bruise and wound you had was already several days old." Finn replied, his thumbs lightly brushing over her cheeks.

"Something ain't adding up… it felt so damn real." Amanda responded before both heard a knock and turned to the open door, seeing Seth staring at Amanda in disbelief and him muttering "Probably whatever you put in your bloodstream before the match.", which made Finn turn livid.

"Mandy's never abused any drugs and you damn well know it!" Finn said through gritted teeth, Seth turning to him.

"What I'm seeing would say otherwise, I think!" Seth responded. "Tell me, what did this 'future' look like? Let me guess, you saw the dream world and met Amanda Balor the third?"

"If I had, she would've been a lot calmer without Seth Rollins the third treating her like a cheating lover and turning violent whenever she told him that she can handle her own damn life without him trying to kick anyone out of it!" Amanda replied, a mix of sarcasm and anger and Seth turning pissed.

"And maybe she would've been happy if she were able to look back on her family line and see a history of _decent_ choices on people! Instead, she sees a woman who threw away her career for a hopeless lovesick desire that backfired on her the moment she fell pregnant!" Seth shouted in response.

Amanda grabbed the food tray and chucked it at Seth, who screamed and reeled back as it hit his head and nose before Seth was dragged out of the room and John walked in and closed the door behind him as Finn wrapped his arms around Amanda and held her to him.

John walked over and sat down, seeing that the bruises on Amanda's hands were nearly as dark as the onyx colored polish she had on her nails.

"They're right… they're a lot older than they should be. It's almost like you've been in for half a month." John said semi-quietly, as his eyes scanned over the bruises.

"I don't remember any other blows from the chair…" Amanda whispered as she looked around, seeing that the mid January weather had brought frost and snow on the window and windowsill.

"She did get a second hit in, across your right hip once you were down… lucky she was stopped when she was, because the next one looked aimed for the back… someone is owed quite the thanks but honestly in the chaos of it all, I didn't see who stopped her." John responded.

"Me either…" Finn said quietly.

At the same time, Alexa was in the hotel across town, drinking herself senseless… she had been told earlier in the week that she was suspended until the medical review of Amanda's injuries came back to deem if they were severe enough for retirement or not. She looked up, seeing Stephanie.

"Recovery… not retirement, nothing broken, no damage aside from bruises. In fact, they think she'll wake up soon." Stephanie said, having not heard from Amanda yet.

"Huh… disappointingly un… underwormi… under- aw fuck it." Alexa responded, giving up as her slurred tongue couldn't pronounce the word right.

"Underwhelming?! Your co-worker's health means fuck all to you, you bitter little bitch?!" Stephanie growled.

"Do you think I would have thrown a chair if it did after she paid homage to her childhood hero?! People should keep their hands off of fights that aren't theirs! If I had it my way, she would be retiring alright! And she wouldn't know for another four months as that's how long it would take her to fucking wake up!" Alexa shouted in response.

"Well that's how long the board has your suspension set… yeah, that should be sheer luck to you!" Stephanie said before downing Alexa's last remaining shot of whiskey and slamming the glass down, Alexa jumping back. "I watched Mandy grow up, go through life and pick herself back up when she felt like stopping! Finally, she's stable and in a happy place in it… and you want it snatched away! Focus more on your own life, you might want to use the time you have for your suspension to plan out your wedding provided Murphy stays with you!" She yelled, gesturing to the diamond princess cut ring on Alexa's left ring finger before Stephanie's phone rang and she answered it. "Yes?"

"Stephanie…" Amanda said, Alexa turning shocked and rageful.

"Go back to sleep, you slutty bitch! Nap time ain't up yet!" Alexa yelled, Stephanie shoving her back before returning the phone to her ear.

"She's been drinking herself stupid, don't mind her. How you feeling?" Stephanie answered.

"Tired and sore… and confused… did I miss anything while out, how are yours and Hunter's little girls?" Amanda responded.

"They're all alright. Most of the past few days have been composed of news reporters desperately scraping up any interview they can get, the board examining the tapes to make their decision… and Ty nailing down on a guy trying to hack your medical files yesterday." Stephanie answered.

"Damn hackers, they're as bad as looters." Amanda said as Stephanie knew she was still out of it.

And it worried her…


	2. Fractured Flashes?

_**2115…**_

 _Amanda had barely escaped the area she had woken up in and came across a tall man with light brown hair, hazel eyes and a strange uniform._

" _You look like hell…" The man said, Amanda seeing that the tag on his shirt read 'Lt. Reginald Barclay'._

" _Where am I? Why am I here?!" Amanda asked._

" _That's a very good question… come on, we'll get you checked over." Reginald answered, helping her to walk ahead along the edge of the wetted, darkened street. "You're in Bozeman, Montana… sounds like you had a fair amount to drink."_

" _I don't… drink that much anymore. It's freezing out here." Amanda said, realising she was still in her ring outfit._

" _That's just January for ya. To think… hard to believe that it's over 50 years since our first warp ship launched from this exact area. Actually… just over the other side of that hill is the launch facility." Reginald replied, the last part as he pointed ahead to the distant outline of a rising area of the land._

" _50?! Last I remember is being in 2016, what the hell happened?!" Amanda exclaimed._

" _Well 2016, that's nearly as many years ago as there were dalmations in that film from around back then… it's 2115." Reginald replied, as they approached some buildings that were lit up inside, unlike others as the most of them didn't have their lights on inside._

" _2115… 99 years… I'm dreaming or comatose, right?" Amanda responded as Reginald noticed the bruises on her body._

" _Well I'd tell you to pinch yourself but… you look like you've had enough of that lately, what happened to you?" Reginald replied, at the same time as Amanda looked up and distantly, in the night sky, saw a bright flash and then two long glowing lines going up into the sky, almost like the engine vapour trails of a plane but made of light. "Don't mind that… they've just started building one of Earth's first Warp 2 capable starships. Enterprise XCV-330 has barely had her bulkheads bolted together yet, but there's been at least ten freighter launches per day for the past couple of months getting the parts up there."_

" _I was in a match set before Raw… is there anything that can pull it up off the internet? Date was January 18th 2016." Amanda replied._

" _99 years and six days ago… I think a computer can manage that." Reginald answered as they headed to the lit building, Reginald helping her to lean against the front desk before walking around it to the computer. He typed in on it for a few moments, before he turned the screen around. "Well that's definitely you…"_

 _Amanda bent down closer to the monitor as she watched it… she saw herself stepping back slightly as Alexa stepped aggressively towards her with the chair, before she stepped sideways slightly and swung it around, a loud 'crack' sound echoing as it hit her hip, and she fell… she saw the outline of someone dash up into the ring and tackle Alexa to the floor as Finn ran up to the ring and carefully turned her over… there was nothing to suggest that she'd ever been at all out of place._

" _What the hell's going on here?" Amanda muttered as she could only link two of the bruises to the chair shots._

" _Hang on, let me try something here…" Reginald responded, as he tapped in on the keyboard, setting the video clip to play in a very slow motion… and Amanda saw what he had. Only picked up in one single frame of the 50fps footage, moments after Alexa had hit her the second time, Amanda appeared to glow a bright blue and almost fade out around the edges. But in the next frame, 1/50 of a second later, she was back to normal, and the same in the frame before as well._

" _You're really freaked… and your memory is shot…" Reginald said before guiding Amanda to a room and helping her lie down. "Rest up…" He said before pulling the blanket over her._

" _The man in the video who was near me… can you find him please?" Amanda questioned._

" _I can try and find out who he is, but… it's 100 years since then, Amanda. The vast majority of everyone in that whole time… is dead by now." Reginald replied, before he rested a hand on her shoulder. "But I promise I'll see what I can find."_

 _Amanda nodded and closed her eyes, Reginald staying for a few more minutes before leaving…_

" _Amanda Cena?"_

 _Amanda woke up, blurry vision making out a man stood beside the bed dressed in all black. "You probably know by now that you're in the very wrong place, in time and the country."_

" _Take me… back home…" Amanda whispered before slipping back into sleep, the man lightly examining her bruised body._

" _You'll find your way back…" He said before leaving…_

 **Present time…**

Amanda stayed still as the doctor examined her and turned to John and Finn.

"You were right, these don't add up… did the other woman hit her before the match?" The doctor, a woman in her early 40s with reddish brown hair and grey eyes asked.

"They have shouting matches a bit often but… they tend to keep it from getting physical when it's not meant to." Finn answered.

"Has anyone else hit her?" The doctor asked.

"No… am I gonna be able to go home soon?" Amanda responded.

"Not anytime today… the soonest I'd guess would be the day after tomorrow, but that depends on how observations and tests go before then." The doctor explained.

She left to go check on another patient and Finn sat down on the edge of the bed, lightly rubbing Amanda's arms.

"None of this matches up… I look like I got hit by a bus." Amanda said quietly.

"Some of these bruises… they're almost like they were caused after, maybe… maybe you fell somewhere. I mean… I believed that you saw what you did, whether or not you actually did physically travel was a bit different but… now it does make sense. Or it's the only thing that does… I suppose time travel could return you to the exact same instance you were taken from, which is why no one else noticed." Finn replied.

"Time travel?" John asked.

"It's a confusing story, John." Amanda said.

"It is… but for now, just look at her injuries. They're well over a week old." Finn added.

"They are… but right now, rest and food is needed. Mandy, anything in particular?" John said.

"McDouble and fries?" Amanda asked.

"I'll see if Aestrid will stop along the way…" John answered, taking out his phone… and for a split second, Amanda thought that she saw in his hand a similar device to what she'd seen hanging from Reginald's belt, but with her next blink it appeared as his normal, early 21st century smartphone.

Amanda nodded and stretched back out, John kissing her on her forehead before heading into the hallway and Finn pulling the blanket closer to Amanda to keep her warm before Aestrid showed up with the food, herself having not slept much either.

At the same time in the ER, Dean reached the room he had gotten texted to show up at.

"Really? 11 texts within 15 minutes, what did you do now?!" Dean asked, seeing Seth with his nose bandaged.

"I spit some words I should've kept trapped… Mandy doesn't take too kindly to insulting her foreseeable future, it seems." Seth answered.

"You're a dickhead, antagonizing a girl who just woke up after 5 days." Dean replied.

"Dean, none of what she said made sense! I think she's on-" Seth responded, Dean grabbing him by his shirt.

"The only drug she's on that's fucking up her mind is having to talk to you! And sometimes, gradually more often, it's becoming a drug she certainly needs to quit!" Dean growled.

"The hell is going on in here?!" Both heard, seeing Zahra.

"Only him accusing Mandy of drugging herself up on something… completely ignoring the fact that if her bruises were normal, she would have had to have received them over a week ago, a lot more than 5 days! I don't doubt that she saw something, I don't know about physically travelling, but it's the only thing that makes sense right now!" Dean answered.

"A week ago… was she in some kind of fight?" Zahra asked.

"She tripped over a step last Wednesday, that's 10 days ago… but even then, that would only be her knees and hands. She's got enough bruises on her to confuse her injuries with being run over by a truck!" Dean replied.

"Seth, what the hell did you do to her?!" Sasha asked after she had heard that and ran in.

"I didn't touch her once!" Seth responded.

"Well someone did!" Sasha yelled, the pink haired woman slapping him before Dean and Zahra pulled her back.

Seth couldn't figure anything out about this…


	3. Home Sweet Home

**Two days later, Orlando…**

Amanda felt much better after a shower but could hardly move her arms without them hurting, having only pulled on some underwear and pajama pants… she swore in Irish, unaware that Finn was walking towards the room and Finn opening the door.

"I can understand what you said, young lady." Finn said softly, the tone so he didn't make Amanda jump so badly.

"You taught me it, mister." Amanda replied before she saw Finn looking through one of the drawers and finding one of Amanda's sleep shirts before pulling it over the tiny brunette's head. "Okay, I'm giving in, where was it last?" She asked, looking for the Percocet that was prescribed… and Finn seeing that Amanda didn't remember taking one earlier, Finn helping Amanda sit down and grabbing the towel to help towel dry her damp hair. "What the hell's gotten into me? Even after a concussion, I never had gaps in my memory." She said as his right hand rested on her left shoulder.

"I don't know, maybe… supposing that time travel works like you see in films, maybe your head is still out of sync or something." Finn replied. "Lucky my memory is alright… so just ask if you need a hand." He finished quietly as his mouth was close to her ear from where he was stood.

"Okay." Amanda whispered, having been used to doing things on her own… but given her injuries, she knew she wouldn't be able to for a while. "Want to see what's on Tv?" She asked after both had stretched out on the bed.

Finn smiled and changed the channel, finding An American Tail starting to air on TBS.

"I haven't watched this in years… one of my favorites from childhood." Amanda responded as she settled her body against Finn's and felt his right arm wrap around her.

"Always good to see those old things again… to every so often make what was old, new again… just for a moment." Finn replied, as he too watched the program.

As they watched to where it got to the song, Finn noticed that Amanda started singing to it as well and tears forming and her blinking them away.

"The movie version of it describes a sibling like love… the James Ingram and Linda Ronstadt one is different from that. I always… thought of it as more between friends and lovers but I'm a sucker for things like that." Amanda said as they looked at each other.

"We all are for something or other… I imagine that was why you were so taken aback to see Enzo and Dianne getting a bit within each other's intimate distance zones, so to speak." Finn replied.

"With those two, I had a feeling something would happen… they've known each other since childhood basically." Amanda said as she ran her right hand through her curls for a few seconds.

"They have, Dianne showed me a picture once of the two of them… taken in 2004. That is a fair time ago, 12 years." Finn agreed.

"12 years… back then, I was just starting out with training…" Amanda said, Finn noticing a faded scar on the back of Amanda's neck. "Dark match before SmackDown in 2008… Maryse didn't take kindly to me pulling the old 'hit the chair against the mat and toss it' trick… she grabbed me by the back of my neck and a nail dug in so deep that part of it broke off." She explained, Finn cringing at that.

"What is it with some of the other women trying to kill you?" Finn asked before both heard someone downstairs… someone who's voice Amanda immediately recognised.

"Is anyone here? Amanda, where are you?" Reginald asked.

Amanda and Finn stood up and headed downstairs.

"How in the world did you get in here and who are you?" Finn asked, having locked the doors and windows and holding Amanda close to him.

"I'm Reginald Barclay… I was brought back through time by a temporal agent from the 30th century, along with a ship and its crew… but we were separated mid-transit." Reginald answered.

"Any idea how you all got separated?" Amanda asked.

"I wasn't aboard the ship when the portals opened. Naturally of course, that ship is from around _another_ 50 years ahead of me, so I'd imagine that it ended up in orbit somewhere… but they haven't contacted me yet." Reginald explained.

Amanda took one step forward and her bruised legs started to buckle, Finn catching her and putting her on the couch.

"Obviously hasn't been that long for you… time travel is tricky. From my perspective, I last saw you nearly a year ago." Reginald said as he sat down nearby. "Which reminds me… you dropped this in the future." He said before reaching into his pocket, taking out what Amanda recognised as one of her elastic wristbands. Wearing numerous ones at once, she hadn't noticed that one was missing before.

Amanda gently took hold of it and lightly ran her fingers along the Balor Club logo… and saw a small bloodstain in it that matched a scrape on her right hand.

"Now I remember…" Amanda said quietly.

 _Amanda tripped and landed hard against the floor, scraping her right palm open before she was picked up to her feet by Reginald and helped back into the bed._

" _Hey, you don't need to be trying to go yet… you're in no shape to move, I'm afraid medical science hasn't evolved to the point where we can just zap you with something and repair everything in your body." Reginald said, straightening out the bed covers once Amanda was back inside them before taking a couple of the sanitized wipes from the small box on the bedside table, lightly pressing them to Amanda's scraped hand._

" _I've got a family and friends I have to get back to, they've got to be scared to death with me not there… or not waking up, whatever the hell's going on with my body there." Amanda explained as Reginald saw the bruises on her knees that he guessed were a few days old._

" _I don't think your body is asleep anywhere… you saw that clip, that big flash that appeared for a single frame in 50 per second. I think… you were transported from that moment and that at some point, you'll be put back less than a second after you left." Reginald replied._

" _Then… can't we find somewhere and just… 'transport' me back now?" Amanda questioned._

" _See that's where it doesn't make sense… transporters here take a whole 30 seconds at the fastest to cycle, a lot more than a fraction of one. Plus… we've barely even gotten them to the point where we can teleport a box of chocolates 5 meters across and the chocolates don't end up merged with the cardboard, the first living test they ran of it… materialized inside out." Reginald explained._

" _I could… you're telling me I could die before…" Amanda started to say, Reginald lightly hugging her and seeing that more bruises were starting to form on Amanda's back…_

"We spoke a bit about how you could have got there… eventually arriving at the conclusion that for a transporter to be that advanced, it was probably from the future for me as well, by many centuries… and we were right. 8 months down the line, Daniels approached me… agent from the 30th century." Reginald explained.

"So is… is there another Amanda in the future? Is she swapping between bodies or something?" Finn questioned.

"No… no body swapping happened. Both the Mandy here and who ended up in 2115 are the same. It was like we thought, transported out and later back in all in the blink of an eye." Reginald answered.

"Was whoever transported me trying to protect me from Alexa's rage?" Amanda asked.

"I don't know… that's why me and the 2156 ship are here, to find out who and why. Daniels sent you back, but he didn't take you out of this time to begin with." Reginald answered.

Amanda looked down at her arms and saw the bruises shaped like hands… they were larger than Finn's or any descendants of his.

And then she started to think about the outline and showed a picture to Reginald.

"Did he look anything like this man?" Amanda asked, Reginald's eyes widening when he saw Seth.

"Relatively, yeah… his hair was shorter, but the face is damn near identical." Reginald answered.

Amanda heard a knock at the door and stood up, opening it only to be caught in a bear like hug from Randy.

"Randy… get off me!" Amanda growled as she started to ache again, her and Randy letting go.

"Sorry… damn it, how the hell did these end up on your arms?!" Randy asked, seeing the bruises.

Amanda looked at the picture… and then it hit her again.


	4. Centuries Old Fighting

_"Get off me!" Amanda shouted, trying to shove the man off of her… the only identification on him was a nametag that read 'Lt. Brandon Rollins' and it really spooked her how much he looked like Seth. "I don't know what game you're playing but it ain't funny!" She said after there was distance between them before she shouted for Finn, Brandon covering her mouth after dragging her into the transporter._

" _You stay right there and if you value your limbs and extremities, do not move! And that's not a threat either!" Brandon shouted as he quickly stepped over to a console and grabbed onto a large lever, gradually pulling it down… Amanda tried to dart away but it was like something hard impacted her, holding her where she was._

" _This is kidnapping, you said you would never hurt me!" Amanda yelled._

" _No, Amanda… my great grandfather said he'd never hurt you." Brandon responded before Amanda felt her muscles begin to twitch and spasm... she looked down at herself to see lights. Dozens of them, gradually even more appeared, fading up and down, inside and out of her body and moving slowly, the closest thing she could think of was that they were like hundreds of blue shining fireflies surrounding her._

" _Why are you doing this, can't you see that I'm happy where I was?!" Amanda asked._

" _Yep, you were… but gradually more and more people weren't." Brandon responded. Amanda looked down again… and now her body was beginning to fade out and away into the lights._

" _I have a life to get back to, to continue-" Amanda said, Brandon turning to her and her turning solid again as her eyes narrowed in a way that reminded him of her great granddaughter Avery._

" _You listen… you and my great grandfather tore each other's lives apart! I was under every desire to end you, and the only reason you are still alive is because I'm allowing it! So shut! Your! Mouth!" Brandon shouted, pulling Amanda out of the transporter and her shoving him back._

" _Tá tú tinn díreach cosúil le Seth!" Amanda responded, Brandon slapping her as he knew she had learned Irish from Finn._

" _Too… far!" The two heard… and even if it wasn't Finn's voice, Amanda would recognise the Irish accent anywhere. "What, do you seriously hate me that much that you'd transport my great grandmother out of her time and deliberately let the transporter disintegrate her?!"_

" _Avery, I didn't take her out! I only found her and recognised who she was!" Brandon responded, Avery walking over to them._

" _But the fact still remains that you were trying to kill her. Well if you'd listened to Dr. Erickson, you'd know that there's safeguards against that after last time, if a beam isn't working it resets and remineralizes the subject where they stand." Avery replied as she walked to Amanda, lightly looking over her bruises, some newly appearing from being partially transported somewhere then returned. "I saw pictures of you and Finn… my granddad always said you were one of the most resilient couples he'd ever heard of."_

" _Anything strong enough can withstand the hell thrown at it!" Amanda said… before turning to Brandon and throwing her body weight at him, hitting him with every bit of rage in her until Brandon had managed to pull her off of him and shove her away. "I am not yours or Seth's punching bag in the 21st century or wherever we are now but I'll damn well make you mine if you don't take me back home!" She yelled… before realising she was on a part of the floor that was collapsible…_

 _Amanda pressed a nearby button, disappearing before Brandon and Avery could grab her._

" _Damn it, where does that go?!" Brandon questioned as he got up again._

" _Air filtration system… eventually, outside." Avery answered._

" _Crafty little bitch!" Brandon growled, Avery chuckling._

" _That's the Cena/Balor bloodline, asswipe!" Avery said…_

Amanda looked at her phone and saw a video call incoming from Seth… she ignored it, Reginald smiling in approval.

"He can damn well wait." Reginald said.

At the same time in the International Palms Hotel, Seth turned back to Zahra, who was packing her things up.

"Where the hell-" Seth started to ask.

"I told you before! Make me a priority in your life or I'm gone. But you? You're just laser focused on pulling Mandy away from Finn! As unfair as that is to me, it's worse for her!" Zahra responded, zipping her suitcase up as she had clearly had too much bourbon to drink and Seth standing up and walking to her, taking her left hand into his right one. "Whether it was you or a nightmare she had during her coma, someone hurt her… those bruises didn't appear out of nowhere." She said, pulling her hand away and leaving.

Seth reached into his jacket pocket after the door closed and set a velvet box on the table, opening it and revealing a purple engagement ring in a princess cut setting… before closing the box.

"She wasn't the right one for you."

Seth's head snapped up and he turned around, seeing a girl with Amanda's chestnut brown hair and tanned skin tone… but the final piece of it was that the girl had Finn's blue eyes and Irish accent.

"How the hell did you get in here?!" Seth responded.

"Sort of the same way your crazy ass descendant snatched Amanda out of her own time and tried to kill her because of your grudge… you really should've listened to your former friend, she was telling the truth." The girl answered, Seth seeing a tag that read _'Lt. Avery Balor'_ on her uniform.

"You don't know a damn thing about my life, the woman I was all set to ask to marry me, who I was ready to share my life with just stormed out all because your great grandmother couldn't keep her legs shut around Balor!" Seth replied angrily.

"And how you reacted threw them closer together… only a matter of time, really." Avery responded calmly.

"You better be fucking joking." Seth muttered.

"Nope." Avery said before leaving.

At the apartment, it was just Finn and Amanda as Reginald went out looking after getting a phone call… and being a typical Florida winter, it was raining and crackling with lightning.

"Hope he's cautious out there." Amanda replied as she felt Finn's right hand rest on her lower back and the fingers on his left hand trailing up her right arm… but he could tell she felt like she was terrible looking with the bruises on her as she tried to look away, Finn getting her to look at him by cradling her face in his hands.

"You know what bruises and scrapes and scars are? Marks of battle… the marks of someone strong who can walk through the fire and withstand the burn. You don't have to be spotless… to be gorgeous." Finn said in a gentle and softened tone.

"There are times I don't feel…" Amanda responded before Finn once again had his hands on her sides to steady her and leaned in, kissing the corner of her mouth before kissing her on her neck and she trailed off completely, throat going dry and heart starting to race.

"Nothing will change how you are to me, Mandy…" Finn whispered before they kissed, Amanda reaching her hands down and pulling his shirt off when they stopped.

"Then show me how beautiful I am to you…" Amanda said quietly before they headed upstairs.

When Aestrid showed up to check on them, she walked into the apartment… and stopped when she heard the bed upstairs hitting the wall repeatedly before turning and seeing Sami, who couldn't figure out what to say as his eyes widened.

"Should we… head back on to the Performance Centre?" Sami managed to ask after a few seconds.

"Might be a… good idea, yeah. Also not to mention what we've witnessed here." Aestrid responded.

The two headed out into the weather and carefully drove off, Aestrid smiling.

"I'll tell ya one thing… it's about damn time they admitted their feelings for each other." Aestrid said, Sami nodding in agreement.


	5. Falling Into Place?

_**9/10/15, just after 9/30/15 taping for NXT, Full Sail University…**_

" _It's getting bad out there, are the highways being closed off?" Amanda asked as Sami slowed down from a run to a walk, holding someone just a bit shorter than Amanda in his arms and off the ground with a raincoat shielding her. "Hi…" She said, the girl looking at her and back at Sami._

 _"Does she know where he is?" The girl asked._

 _"She might… we don't know unless we ask, right?" Sami replied, the girl answering with a shake of the head._

 _"Family?" Amanda asked._

 _"Sort of…" The girl replied, showing Amanda a picture of a younger Seth._

 _"Stay right here with Sami, okay? And what's your name?" Amanda questioned._

 _"Indie…" The girl answered before Amanda left and immediately opened the door to Hunter's office, incidentally interrupting a meeting between Seth, Hunter and Finn._

 _"Don't you know how to knock?!" Seth responded, yelping when Amanda yanked him up by his shirt._

 _"No time to knock, now move it, mister!" Amanda said, nudging Seth towards the door as Hunter and Finn followed them to where Sami and Indie were waiting._

 _"Indie?!" Seth replied, eyes wide with shock._

 _"Been a long time… but you still recognise me." Indie responded as she had her feet on the floor and walked over, both of them hugging._

 _"Kiddo, what were you doing out in this weather?" Seth asked as they let go._

 _"Looking for you… Seth, I have no other family." Indie explained..._

 **Present time…**

Amanda had no idea how long she had been asleep before opening her eyes and looking up at Finn through the darkened room, his right hand resting on her lower back and left hand on her right hip as they held each other.

"Power's out…" Amanda replied quietly, carefully stretching her back as it was bruised a lot worse than the other parts of her body.

"To be expected… during times of weather like this. I just hope that wherever Seth is, the place has a backup generator or battery of some sort." Finn responded in a similar tone.

"Yeah… Indie needs to recharge her heart every couple of days." Amanda replied, Seth having been taking care of his former friend's daughter since she turned up just a few months ago.

At the same time in the hotel room with the backup generator running, Indie had fully charged her heart after walking in… but she also noticed the tension.

"I guess you didn't react properly when you went to go visit her in the hospital." Indie said, Seth jumping slightly as he thought she had stayed in Davenport with his parents. "You said you stopped fighting with her, Seth… was that a lie?" She responded.

"It wasn't… but maybe it was that I wasn't _entirely_ happy." Seth answered, Indie glancing towards the floor to her right.

"It's her life and she will do as she wants with it… not your decision to make, who she gets involved with." Indie responded.

"Do you think I should go apologize?" Seth asked.

"Preferably before someone else hurts her… is that…" Indie replied, pointing to the velvet box.

"I was planning a proposal… but someone told me Zahra wasn't right for me." Seth admitted.

"Who was it?" Indie responded.

"She was short, long brown hair, blue eyes… looked so much like both of them, I wanted to just…" Seth answered, hitting his right hand on the table in frustration.

"You felt like it was a slap in the face to see someone who's a carbon copy of them… just after Zahra walked out." Indie replied.

"She even said it was just a matter of time." Seth said as Indie sat down and saw that the storm was now a few sprinkles of rain.

"It was a day like this when I first turned up at the arena… remember?" Indie responded, Seth nodding.

When the storm had completely blown over, Seth and Indie reached the apartment. They got out of the car and knocked on the door after noticing the low lighting… when Amanda opened it, they saw that her hair was damp and she had on a different pair of pajamas.

"Shouldn't you be resting?" Seth asked after they walked in, Amanda closing the door.

"I'm feeling alright…" Amanda answered, Seth noticing that a few candles were around and the flames were nearly dying out as Finn noticed them from the kitchen before walking over.

"Everything okay?" Finn asked, Indie giving a look to Seth that meant to behave.

"Yes… Seth just needs to say something to you both." Indie answered, nudging Seth before he looked at them and reached out to touch Amanda… but lowered his right hand when he noticed fright in her eyes and Finn resting his right hand on Amanda's lower back.

"No harm, I promise… I'm sorry for how I treated you at the hospital. I shouldn't have acted like that." Seth explained.

"Apology accepted… but apologizing is the easy part. Holding yourself to it, not always easy. And as much as I want to hold Alexa solely responsible, she didn't cause all these bruises." Amanda said with a slight tremble in her voice, Seth eyes narrowing in concern. "He looks just like you… to the point where I thought that it was you at first. Now you know why I haven't answered your calls over the past few hours." She responded, hiding her tears from Seth before Finn got her to sit down and Seth sat down across from her.

"It shouldn't have happened… and I'm a bit fucked in the head, I admit. But that guy isn't me… we all need to get that into our heads good and solid, that man is not Seth Rollins." Seth replied as Indie stood by the window and watched outside as cars passed down below.

Amanda nodded… but Seth knew that she had that feeling.

At the Royal Rumble event a few days later, Amanda was going through the script when she heard the door open… and to her immediate shock, Reginald dragged the young lieutenant in and Amanda closing the door.

"I had a feeling you'd come crawling out of the shadows… but you're a bit too late, boy. Things are calming down… changing. The violence is gonna end and you're gonna go back to your own time and face whatever hell is waiting for you." Amanda said as Brandon narrowed his eyes in disbelief and rage at the brunette, who had covered up the bruises on her face.

"It will never stop… calm it down? I can start things up again just as easily here as anywhere or anytime!" Brandon responded.

"Take it from me if you won't take it from her…" Brandon heard, turning to see Seth. "This madness ends now, you little punk, you nearly killed her!" Seth growled.

"So you're gonna switch sides after all the hell this bitch caused? And you realise that by them being together a few nights back that things could've been altered drastically?!" Brandon asked before Finn walked into the room.

"Don't think you'll get a shocked reaction from him, ain't gonna happen." Finn replied as his right hand entwined with Amanda's left one, Brandon turning his rage to Finn and attempting to attack him but Seth grabbed him by his arm and turned the younger man to him.

"Listen to me! You caused damage that she's never gonna forget and you need to go back and let them be, your actions pushed them together and that'll never change! Stay here longer or ever come back and you risk screwing up your family's timeline too!" Seth yelled.

"This coming from you?!" Brandon questioned angrily, Seth processing all he'd said.

"Yes… that coming from me." Seth responded, his tone now solid and fully thought through. "You leave this time, and you never come back to it." He finished.

Seth let go of his great grandson and Reginald escorted Brandon out of there… when it was the three of them, Seth cautiously rested his left hand on Amanda's right shoulder.

"Any guesses as to what's fully happened to their own timeline?" Amanda asked quietly.

"Maybe your family line has changed slightly, and mine possibly less… aggressive. But someone who had theorized about these effects of altering the future once told me… it could take thousands of years for the effects of a small change to play out. So really… no one will ever know just how much was changed, and we'll never be able to tell anyway." Seth responded and explained.

After a gentle kiss to Amanda's forehead, he decided to let them be. Amanda and Finn sat down, Amanda lying against him as they stretched out and Finn holding her while trying his best not to aggravate her injuries.

"Altered… not sure what to think what he meant by that, what he was hoping for. He was here for a reason, could he have been… looking to try to kill every part of our future family again?" Amanda said quietly.

"Or drastically alter it by pushing us apart… maybe in time, he'll come to accept it. In a way, I suppose some would say that time travel… it's a coward's weapon. Stopping your problems from starting so you never have to face them." Finn replied, his hand lightly massaging around her upper back and shoulders.

At the same time, Reginald dragged Brandon onto the Enterprise E and Brandon saw Captain Picard once they were in the 22nd Century.

"You've caused quite a lot of trouble, young man… you should consider yourself lucky that she didn't harm you." Picard responded.

"That little tramp could barely walk, let alone hurt me." Brandon growled, yelling out when Picard grabbed him by his right ear.

"That young lady was doing as any other woman does, and as usual every generation blames the one before them for their own problems… did it ever occur to you that by splitting the two of them up, you would have erased your own existence?" Picard responded, letting go near the end. "We ran calculations and examined old records… without the Balors' third child, your parents would never have met in their lifetimes. You would never have been born."

"Should've listened when I said that there's something you needed to know. But instead, you ran off the second you heard Amanda's name leave my mouth." Reginald replied.

"What were you trying to tell me then? Am I related to those two that can't control themselves?" Brandon asked.

"You are… and how that story started out, it was a bit of a shock to them." Reginald explained.


End file.
